Speaking truth to power-drunk
Although it can also be read as a criticism of the soft left in the US, that establishment critics and the Old Right have been just as or more vocal and active about BushCo’s disasters can hopefully only add to the movement to end this deplorable conflict, prevent another one and to impeach the war criminals currently occupying the White House.
Aside from the Iraq Study Group, here are a few more establishment voices that carry more sense than Bush does in a breath, let alone in a mangled sentence. I include a sample from both Dems and the GOP (admittedly, libertarian Ron Paul is one of the few office-holding Republicans for whom I have respect).
Brzezinski, Boyle, Feingold and Paul (video) follow.
“The war in Iraq is a historic, strategic, and moral calamity. Undertaken under false assumptions, it is undermining America’s global legitimacy. Its collateral civilian casualties as well as some abuses are tarnishing America’s moral credentials. Driven by Manichean impulses and imperial hubris, it is intensifying regional instability.”
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to US President Jimmy Carter in prepared testimony for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Feb 1, 2007.
“It was the Chicago Straussian cabal of pro-Israeli Neo-cons who set up a separate “intelligence” unit within the Pentagon that was responsible for manufacturing many of the bald-faced lies, deceptions, half-truths, and outright propaganda that the Bush Jr. administration then disseminated to the lap-dog U.S. news media in order to generate public support for a war of aggression against Iraq for the benefit of Israel and in order to steal Iraq’s oil.”
— Professor Francis A. Boyle, Neo-Cons, Fundies, Feddies, and Con-Artists, Dissident Voice, Sept 23, 2003
We are approaching the four-year anniversary of one of the greatest foreign policy mistakes in our country’s history. In March 2003, with the prior authorization of Congress, the President took this country to war in Iraq. Almost four years later, virtually every objective observer–and, more importantly, the American people–agree that the President’s policy has failed.
Even the President acknowledges his plan hasn’t worked, though his solution is not a new plan but a troop escalation. Of course, sending more troops to implement what is essentially the same flawed strategy makes no sense. The American people agree that it makes no sense. And most of my colleagues agree that it makes no sense.
The question becomes, with a President unable or unwilling to fix a flawed policy that is jeopardizing our national security and military readiness, what should we in Congress do about our country’s involvement in this disastrous war? Do we do nothing, and hope that the President will put things right, when he has shown time and again that he is incapable of doing so? Do we tell the President that we aren’t happy with the way the war is going and hope that he will change course? Or do we take strong, decisive action to fix the President’s mistaken, self-defeating policies?
It’s pretty clear which course of action I support. It’s the course of action that the American people called for in the November elections. It’s the course of action that our national security needs, so we don’t continue to neglect global threats and challenges while we focus so much of our resources on Iraq. It’s the course of action that will support our brave troops and their families.
We must end our involvement in this tragic and misguided war. The President will not do so. Therefore, Congress must act.
Clearly, Mr. President, the President’s decision to send more troops makes no sense. But simply passing a nonbinding resolution criticizing it makes no sense either–if we just stop there. We need to go further and we need to do it soon.
— U.S. Senator Russ Feingold delivered on February 16, 2007 from the Senate floor regarding Iraq. Feingold introduced the Iraq Redeployment Act of 2007 On January 31 to use Congress’ power of the purse to end US military involvement in Iraq. See http://feingold.senate.gov/
Videoclip below:
Rep Ron Paul on Dollar Hegemony, Iraq, Iran (+ the threat of Iranian Oil Bourse denominated in Euros) in the House of Reps (34:49; NB. Ron Paul speaks 1 minute 45 seconds into the video).
U.S. House of Representatives February 15, 2006
Kilroy says, what the hell is a Manichean? No wonder no body understands what the heck these people are talking about.
;)